{"id":894386,"date":"2026-04-14T22:44:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/894386\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T22:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:44:16","slug":"sadiq-khans-london-homes-target-impossible-to-meet-as-building-falls-far-short-of-88000-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/894386\/","title":{"rendered":"Sadiq Khan\u2019s London homes target \u2018impossible to meet\u2019 as building falls far short of 88,000 target"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sir Sadiq Khan\u2019s target of building 88,000 homes a year in London has been branded \u201cimpossible\u201d by property analysts after a sharp slowdown in construction.<\/p>\n

Market analysts Molior found just 2,103 private new\u2011build homes were started in the capital in the first three months of 2026 \u2014 far below the 22,000 quarterly starts needed to hit the Mayor\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n

Although the figure is higher than last year\u2019s quarterly average of 1,397, analysts said the overall pace of development remains \u201cawful\u201d. <\/p>\n

The slowdown raises fresh questions over Labour\u2019s national pledge to deliver 1.5 million homes by 2030, with London expected to shoulder a significant share of the build\u2011out.<\/p>\n

By the end of March, 36,735 homes were under construction in the capital \u2014 around 84 per cent below the estimated 225,000 needed to sustain annual completions of 88,000.<\/p>\n

Molior founder Tim Craine said: \u201cTo complete 88,000 homes a year, you need more than 88,000 homes under construction. You probably need two and a half times that number.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that while London has roughly 300,000 planning permissions, many are outline approvals unlikely to be delivered simultaneously.<\/p>\n

\u201cLondon maybe has a natural delivery rate of about 20,000 homes a year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Khan\"\/<\/p>\n

Mayor’s 88,000 homes target \u2018impossible\u2019 as building starts slump<\/p>\n

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GETTY<\/p>\n

Molior projections suggest that by early 2028, just 5,889 private homes will be under construction.<\/p>\n

The slowdown has coincided with a steep drop in transactions.<\/p>\n

Only 2,838 homes were sold in London in the first quarter of 2026, compared with 8,586 in a single quarter in 2015.<\/p>\n

Mr Craine said falling values have dampened demand, leaving buyers unwilling to commit to off\u2011plan purchases. \u201cNo incentive to buy off\u2011plan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Housing\"\/<\/p>\n

Sir Sadiq promised to increase the levels of affordable housing <\/p>\n

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GETTY<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd with zero off\u2011plan buyers, you get zero construction from anyone that needs to get debt from the bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

Halifax data shows London house prices fell 1.2 per cent on average, amid wider market uncertainty and higher mortgage rates.<\/p>\n

Deutsche Bank has warned UK prices could fall by up to five per cent this year.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Housing said it remains committed to boosting supply.<\/p>\n

\"Housing\"\/<\/p>\n

London remains the most expensive city to buy in the UK<\/p>\n

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GETTY<\/p>\n

A spokesman said: \u201cWe\u2019re taking decisive action to get spades in the ground in the capital so we can restore the dream of homeownership for Londoners,\u201d citing emergency measures to unblock stalled sites and deliver more affordable homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will leave no stone unturned to help London meet its housing target,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Sir Sadiq Khan has already reduced the affordable housing requirement from 35 per cent to 20 per cent in an effort to accelerate development.<\/p>\n

But Mr Craine said even with these changes, the target remains out of reach. \u201cIt\u2019s physically impossible to reach the target,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Sadiq Khan\u2019s target of building 88,000 homes a year in London has been branded \u201cimpossible\u201d by property…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":894387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,528,257,1232,285,14252,16,3106,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-894386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-labour-party","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-money","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-sadiq-khan","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-uk-politics","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116405486611568890","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}